


Sunstorm

by Quirinah



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Original Character(s), also we got stephen stevens and joni jhonny because im terrible at naming, and the magical world and the spectral world coexist so cool, basically zoeys a spectral and has a cool sword, children and shenanigans, i really dont know what im doing lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22809829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quirinah/pseuds/Quirinah
Summary: Isaac stood there, gaping at the sheer might of the tool. “Wow.” He paused for a moment. “...What is it?”Zoey only grinned. “Her name’s Corona, and she’s the spirit of the sun. Francisco helped me find her.”Isabel held the blade delicately, brow furrowed with a strange curiosity. “Weird. I never heard Grandpa mention a sword tool.”“That’s because the tool’s in the ring.” Zoey held up the sword for reference. “The sword’s built around it.”“How did you find a random sword, though?” Isaac studied the broken end carefully. “How did Max’s little sister just stumble upon a random weapon in the woods?”“The ring, I stumbled upon.” Zoey sat casually upon a rock, as if she was about to tell a story.“The sword, on the other hand.” She pressed a thumb to her chest in pride, smirking at the five spectrals.“That, I forged myself.”
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

_The first thing Zoey saw when she was thrown from the vortex was grass, soft and green as spring, and then five pairs of eyes, each curious as they analyzed the limp figure before them._

  
_A shoe prodded at her side. “Guys, take a look at this.”_

  
_“It looks like a girl,” someone remarked. “With a giant sword.”_

  
_“A tool, probably.”_

  
_“Weird. Where would you get a sword?”_

  
_A figure with a baseball cap behind the two mysterious voices, probably about twelve or thirteen judging by his short stature, waved an aluminum bat like a weapon. “She came out of a freaking portal in the middle of the woods! I think where she got her stuff is the least of our worries here!”_

  
_A hand poked at her ribs. “Ey! Who the hell are you?”_

  
_Zoey coughed, dusting the dirt from her jeans. “Zoey. Zoey Puckett.” She had a feeling the five kids she was facing looked strangely familiar, but she couldn’t quite understand why._

  
_One of the mysterious figures, a boy with bright red hair and teeth like a shark’s, sharp and pointy, stared at her in a mixture of disbelief and outright hostility. “ZOEY?!? I thought yer’ sister was nine, Max.”_

  
_Now it was Zoey’s turn to stare at him. “MAX?!? You’re supposed to be in college! Why are you small?”_

  
_“Hey!” Mini-Max harrumphed._

  
_Zoey whirled her head back, looking at the remaining kids. The first, a teen with spiky orange and icy blue eyes, glared at her with a suspicious look, blue smoke flowing from his fists. “Isaac?” She chuckled. “I’d remember the ski ramp hair anywhere.”_

  
_The boy in question only scowled as Zoey turned to face a girl with long, dark hair, determined brown eyes, and a red umbrella with a yellow and blue zigzag pattern. “The Guerra kid? What was your name again? Isabel?”_

  
_Isabel’s companion, a short, cheerful kid with round glasses and fluffy yellow hair held a large, stretchy paintbrush close to him, looking up at Zoey. She grinned. “Burger? Say hi to Muse for me.”_

  
_The shark-toothed boy who had first recognized her shoved his hands into his jacket, only glancing up at Zoey with peculiarly light eyes, closer to yellow than brown. Zoey had only known him, or, the version of him in whatever Mayview she lived in, for fleeting moments, glances of him running off with Max for spectral shenanigans or him fighting in the backyard of the dojo, balls of flame in each hand, but she recognized his face almost instantly. “Johnny...Jhonny.” She vaguely recalled him talking about his spirit, a great knight of metal and fire. “What’s Forge up to? I haven’t heard from him in a while.”_

  
_“You’re a SPECTRAL?!?” Mini-Isaac shrieked._

  
_“If that wasn’t already obvious,” Zoey deadpanned._

  
_Mini-Johnny stopped. “You...know Forge?” Judging by the expression of horror that briefly crossed his face, this was only recently after he must have joined the Activity Club, meaning Zoey was now six years into the past. She looked at the red-headed tween with some sympathy. Twelve-year-old delinquents and ancient warrior spirits did not mix well._

  
_“Yeah,” she finally decided to say, pulling a great sword from her back. “He helped me get this.”_

  
_The Mini-Activity Club crowded around the strange tool in fascination. While they had only gotten brief glances of the object when Zoey had launched out of the vortex, but now, they could see the peculiar weapon in its full glory._

  
_The sword was huge, about the length of an arm, and the blade was a glowing orange color, like fiery lava, and was broken in the middle, jagged shards sticking up from the tips. The hilt was long and thin, with a gem at the pommel, and a massive metal ring, the color of gold, connecting it to the blade, with four points like sun rays or compass poles. Intricate runes were carved on the side, so faint you had to squint to look for them._

  
_Mini-Isaac stood there, gaping at the sheer might of the tool. “Wow.” He paused for a moment. “...What is it?”_

  
_Zoey only grinned. “Her name’s Corona, and she’s the spirit of the sun. Francisco helped me find her.”_

  
_Mini-Isabel held the blade delicately, brow furrowed with a strange curiosity. “Weird. I never heard Grandpa mention a sword tool.”_

  
_“That’s because the tool’s in the ring.” Zoey held up the sword for reference. “The sword’s built around it.”_

  
_“How did you find a random sword, though?” Mini-Isaac studied the broken end carefully. “How did Max’s little sister just stumble upon a random weapon in the woods?”_

  
_“The ring, I stumbled upon.” Zoey sat casually upon a rock, as if she was about to tell a story._

  
_“The sword, on the other hand.” She pressed a thumb to her chest in pride, smirking at the five spectrals._

  
_“That, I forged myself.”_


	2. Purple Hands and Soda Cans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hello friends! im back with a new update!  
> so far i dont think this fic will have a consistent update schedule just yet, because i want to publish entire chapters all at once, but i think if i decide to update it, ill be updating sunstorm on friday.

3 years after present time…

“You’re GOING WHERE?!?”

A fifteen-year-old Max struggled to pry his rambunctious little sister off his backpack. “I told you, Zoey, I’m going camping with Isabel’s family! Get off my leg!”

She stuck her tongue out at him and pouted like she was nine again. “Nuh-uh! No one brings a metal BAT on a camping trip!” Zoey jumped up on her toes, peeking into the capped boy’s bags. “Why do you even have that thing? You carry it anywhere but I never see you use it-”

“It’s for biz.”

“What’s biz?”

“NONE OF YOUR  _ BIZ _ NESS!” Max snapped, yanking his backpack away from Zoey. 

She screeched. “Tell me where you’re GOIINNNNNGGGGG!!”

Her older brother gritted his teeth in a warning. “I LITERALLY JUST SAID IT: I’M JUST. GOING. CAMPING.”

“NO WAY!”

“YES WAY!”

“I totally call bull on that story!”

“WELL, ZOEY, I  _ TOTALLY _ think you’re WRONG-”

Ed slowly cracked open the door to the corner store, toting a duffel bag and a neon green raincoat. “Hey, Max! You coming? Johnny’s trying to set weeds on fire with a soda can!”

Zoey gave Max the most annoying grin she could muster. “Hear that, Maxie? Your boyfriend’s causing a ruckus aaagaaaaain!”

Max turned salmon pink. “Oh MY GOD, Zoey, beGONE! Don’t you have stores to run?” He swatted at her for a few brief seconds before turning back towards Ed. “Gimme a second!”

Zoey smirked. “I still call bull.”

The bat-toting teen only rolled his eyes.

Dad Puckett burst down the stairs, bags in one hand and a cup of instant noodles in the other. “My son’s going out with frieeends!” He patted said son on the head playfully, tucking the instant noodles in the backpack and placing the bags in Max’s left hand. “I brought food for the journey!” Max only mumbled in protest.

“And I fixed your wheels for you! Again!” A poorly repaired scooter, dented from months of wear and tear, was placed in Max’s other hand, and the teen winced at the weight of his luggage. “You’ll be able to ride around the town! Again!” 

“Thanks,” he mumbled. 

“RIDE, MY SON!” Dad cried. “TO YOUR VACATION!”

Max smiled, slinging his bags over his shoulder. “Sure thing.” 

Ed stuck his head out from behind a car door. “HEY! MAX! HURRY UP!”

“COMING!”

Zoey only watched with a frown as he rode into the street to meet the rest of the Activity Club.

Her dad gave her a look of sympathetic pity. “Oh sweetie, don’t worry! You’ll find friends too!”

Zoey nodded, but she wasn’t sure that was the issue that had been nagging at her.

The problem was that she had seen a purple-tinted creature just behind Max.

\----

“...So that’s how you solve for x-NOMURA! DESOTO!” Ms. Baxter stopped mid-sentence to yowl at the guilty-looked pair of boys in the front desks. “BE SY-LENT!”

The two students in question winced, sitting down placidly in their seats, but not before one shot a venomous look towards the other.

Zoey crossed her legs in boredom, seated in the back corner, away from prying eyes. She couldn’t stop thinking about the...thing she had seen yesterday. Absentmindedly, she sketched a shady person in her math notebook, trying to recall the exact shapes she had seen. Was it a hallucination? A vision? Or was she just not getting enough sleep?

She laughed and erased the drawing. It was all a bit ridiculous. Zoey could almost hear Stephen’s voice in her head:  _ GHOSTS, PROBABLY! OR ALIENS! OR LIZARDMEN. ALWAYS LIZARDMEN.  _ She’d never understood his strange obsession with conspiracies, but when he and the rest of the Jang stopped by the corner store, they were a lot of fun to talk to.

But of course, just when she thought she’d need his expertise with the paranormal, the Jang was going on a camping trip with the Activity Club. Fan-flipping-tastic.

The shrill ringing of a bell snapped Zoey out of her thoughts. She winced. If she had sat here for maybe a moment or more, she’d probably be late.

Hurriedly, she grabbed her backpack, still half-open, and sprinted towards her next class.

\---

Zoey dug the heels of her shoes into the soft grass, spreading her arms in the dirt. Lying in clover fields wasn’t exactly the most productive way to pass time, but it was a good time to think.

And right now, Zoey was deep in thought. 

Ever since his first day at Mayview, back when Max was her age, he’d been acting...strange. Maybe Dad hadn’t noticed, being the king of strange himself, but Zoey had. She might have been a few years younger than Max, but she wasn’t dumb. She’d seen Max sneak out late, signature bat toted over his shoulder, running off into somewhere into the woods. She’d heard him talking to...something in his room, pausing occasionally as if in a conversation. Sometimes, he’d come back from wherever he had absconded to in the night with bruises and scratches on his legs and face, dark circles under his eyes and his scooter dented and broken for the hundredth time. Zoey had suspected for some time hanging out with Johnny had changed Max into a delinquent, but despite the nighttime escapades and unusual activity, he was still the same old, sarcastic, cynical parkour teen everyone knew and loved. If it wasn’t Johnny that had caused Max to become...strange, then what was?

Zoey had begun to suspect the purple thing she had seen had something to do with it. It was kind of a random, mostly unsupported theory, but the more she thought about it, the more certain she felt that this idea of hers was true.

When she finally decided to pull herself off the ground and head home for the day, she asked her dad about her suspicions.

“Dad?”

Mr. Puckett, certified strange man extraordinaire, swept some eggshells into a bowl of milk. “Ask away, my sweet loin fruit.”

Zoey cringed before continuing. “Don’t you think Max is acting...kind of weird?”

His eyes lit up. “He’s following in my footsteps,” he whispered. “Just like his old man.”

“Dad, I-”

Said father leaned an arm on Zoey, hands pointed towards the sky. “Just like his old man.” He wiped away a tear, before accidentally knocking the cash register off the countertop with a loud crash.

“Whoops!” Dad Puckett turned towards Zoey. “Hey, can you-”

“Already on it,” she mumbled.

\---

Sure enough, just as Zoey had expected, Max arrived home at dusk, bandages on his legs and bags under his eyes, followed by Isabel and Johnny, all looking equally exhausted. Dad Puckett was busy upstairs, and Zoey was supposed to be in her bedroom working on homework, so it seemed like the perfect time for her to sneak downstairs and see what Max was up to. 

When Zoey heard the door opening, she put on her coat and shoes and hid behind the stair rail so she could eavesdrop on Max. She had also taken her phone just in case she saw or heard anything particularly noteworthy, but she was sure she’d find something  _ so memorable _ , it didn’t need any documentation.

Zoey had no idea how right she would be about that.

As she hid in the darkness and patiently watched, Max threw his duffel bag on the floor with relish, digging something out of his backpack. It looked like...a soda can? With a leshy on it?  _ What brand of soda has mythological forest creatures on the front? _

He handed the soda can to Isabel, who tossed it around in her hands for a bit, before shoving it into her bags. 

“Might as well give this to Mr. Spender,” she said. “It doesn’t match any of us anyway.”

“What’s ‘e even gonna do with a soda that shoots lasers?”

“Put it in the archives,” Isabel replied, throwing her bags on the floor next to Max’s. “Where we’ll never see it again.”

“All objects that disappear into the black hole of the Spender archives are forever lost to time,” Max deadpanned. 

Isabel laughed. “I bet we’ll need the tool for fighting some weird spirit that’s weak to lasers and by then, we’ll all have forgotten about it.”

_ A tool? Spirits? _ Zoey was beginning to think Isabel was off her rocker, but she listened intently nevertheless. 

Johnny kicked a random rock around the ground. “What was dat thing’s color anyway? Purple, or somethin’.”

Max squinted for a second. “Wait, wasn’t PJ’s spectral energy purple-” He paused for a moment as if something had interrupted him. Zoey leaned so far forward she almost tripped. “I guess? I thought you had the plunger-”

Zoey pressed record, straining her ear to hear. Another long pause from Max and friends. 

Isabel gave Max a look, and he laughed nervously. “Actually, about that tool…” He looked towards something he couldn’t see. Zoey followed suit, holding her phone closer to the invisible subject.

As if on cue, a purple figure, the one she had seen earlier, flickered into view. This time, Zoey noticed it was vaguely humanoid-shaped, translucent with glowing white eyes. She could hear more talking from a voice she didn’t recognize now, and she inched towards the sound. 

“...But Mr. Max! It’s purple! And it shoots LASERS!”

Max sighed. “Listen, PJ, can we talk later? We’re..kinda busy.”

The figure lowered its head. “...Kay. Come on, Lefty.” A disembodied, purple hand appeared behind it, following it behind the counter.

Isabel looked, confused, at the dejected purple figure. “So, Max, I gotta go now. Gramps is gonna be pretty pissed if I don’t come back within like, three minutes.”

“Same here,” Johnny added.

Max only nodded in response, turning to head up the stairs. Zoey quickly snapped her phone shut and scrambled upstairs. In her hurry, she tripped over her feet, falling face forward on the last step. Almost immediately, she grabbed the stair rail at the last second, preventing her from tumbling down the stairs, but her phone slipped from her hands and fell downstairs with a clatter.

The disembodied hand whirled towards the sound, attracting the attention of the larger purple figure, who looked at the phone in confusion. 

_ AH FUCK _ , Zoey thought.

Hands trembling, she hoisted herself back up the steps, quickly rolling out of sight just as Max turned towards her abandoned phone in alarm. 

He bent down to pick up the object. “Is this-” Zoey hid her face in her hands, wincing.  _ OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD- _

“Zoey’s PHONE?”

The purple figure suddenly phased through the floor, peeking over Max’s shoulder in curiosity. “Who’s Zoey again?”

Max shrugged. “My intern.”  _ SISTER. NOT INTERN. GODDAMMIT.  _ “C’mon, let’s go.”

As soon as Max headed upstairs, Zoey crawled into her room and quietly shut the door, leaving it open just a crack so she could see if the purple things were still there.

She could vaguely hear Dad Puckett’s voice from the other room. “Max! You’re home from whatever midnight shenanigans you do!”

“Yes! Yes, father, I am.” Max replied. Zoey peeped at the two from behind her bedroom door, still suspicious. “Hey, dad?”

“Yes, my fleshling childe?”

“I’ll be staying over with Ed again tomorrow afternoon. Is that okay?”

“Whatever you need, Maxwell!” Dad glanced over at the clock. “Go to sleep! It’s like, 12 in the evening!”

As Max trudged off to his room, Zoey watched him head down the hallway for a moment or two more before shutting the door with relish. She was definitely onto something here. The purple things, the strange activities, the mysterious leshy soda can...it all connected somehow. She grinned.  _ Just you wait, Maxwell Puckett. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.  _

But first, she’d need to get her phone back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new characters coming soon! stay tuned!


	3. When You Give a Tween a Magic Ring...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi guys, it's me, quirinah, back at it again with some more terrible writing   
> that i decided to upload on sunday for no apparent reason :/

It seemed following your strange older brother through the grass to Ed’s house in pursuit of your phone was harder than Zoey expected. 

For one, flip flops and heavy, black, hand-me-down hoodies from said brother were not exactly the best articles of clothing to go stomping through wet fields under the hot sun. Dirt kept getting between her toes, and sweat kept beading down her forehead, and oh god, she was NOT prepared for this. At least, with the obnoxiously thick Insolent Children hoodie pulled over Zoey’s red hair, people would probably just mistake her for Max Puckett, a certified strange teen extraordinaire and possibly purple ghost whisperer. In fact, if she kept her head bowed, she’d look completely inconspicuous.

She was still thinking about her hoodie when Max suddenly stopped in his tracks, and Zoey scrambled back before she accidentally bumped into him, landing flat on her back. As Zoey struggled to get back up on her feet, she watched as Max scurried into the forest, sliding down a hill (Johnny probably taught him that) and jumping into the dense woods. She looked cautiously towards the area he had gone. It was full of sharp twigs, brush, and rocks that could probably give you a serious scrape if you weren’t careful enough.  _ Yep. He definitely learned that from Johnny. _ She clumsily tiptoed after him. 

\---

Several minutes of restlessly chasing Max later and Zoey had come to two conclusions. First, judging by the way he dodged and hopped over the terrain, he knew this path by heart. Second, from the way the grass and forest slowly became blackened and burnt, he was going to go meet a pyromaniac.

A sharp thorn scraped Zoey’s shoulder, and she winced. So this was how Max got all those cuts and bruises. 

Suddenly, Max started running faster, nearly gliding over the rocks. Zoey struggled to keep up, stumbling forward and trying her best to follow. Branches tore at her arms, and she broke into a sprint, shielding her face with her arms as twigs snagged at her sleeves and the hills seemed to tilt under her feet. 

When she finally emerged from the trees, Zoey was in front of a looming wooden house. She vaguely recognized the several chimneys and lopsided structure as the abode where Isabel and Ed lived together (for some reason), otherwise known as “the dojo”. Of what, Zoey didn’t know, but she had seen pictures of it from Isabel. It looked...different from how Zoey had remembered it this time, though. Something was...off. In past memories, the chimneys had always been silent and inactive, but now, a spectrum of colored, vapor-like smoke billowed from them, in bright, vibrant colors mixed in with some white, gray, and black. As always, the long grass brushed against her legs in a sea of green, going up to Zoey’s chest. For as long as she had known (which wasn’t very long), Isabel’s family had never cut the lawn. Whether it was laziness or aesthetic purposes, Zoey never knew. 

She noticed Max out of the corner of her eye entering the dojo, and she crouched down low in the grass. From her vantage point, she could see indents and bends in which the grass had been recently parted, indicating someone had just walked through it. Zoey made sure to carefully step in the trail, hiding her tracks from any suspicious bystanders. 

Wiping leaves from her jacket, she pulled her hoodie over her face and tucked her hair behind her ears to look like Max, just in case anyone noticed her presence. Then, creaking open the door, she snuck into the dojo.

\---

It was now well into the afternoon, and Zoey was starting to get impatient. 

She’d been sitting in the grass for about a half-hour, watching Max and Johnny fight each other in the strangest way she’d ever seen. One of them would punch or kick each other normally, and then the other would make some weird pantomime and BOOM! The first person would be flat on their back. Occasionally, she’d see the weird colored smoke and the purple-tinted figures again, but they kept blinking out of view, and if she wasn’t concentrating, she’d miss them. Needless to say, it was infuriating.

She’d found her phone in a bag lying on the patio, so at least there was one good outcome from her fruitless endeavor.

Eventually, after the 14th round of watching Max and Johnny fight, Zoey gave up and snuck back indoors. She’d seen almost nothing new, besides the strange pantomiming and colored smoke. Just in case though, she’d recorded some footage in case there was something she missed.

Zoey stormed down the hallway, feeling sour. She was sure she was onto something! It was starting to fit together, and then suddenly, Max completely destroyed her theories! In her anger, she kicked a loose plank sticking up from the floor.

Instead of hitting fragile wood, however, her foot met something solid and hard. Zoey jumped back, startled, and noticed something shiny hidden under the floorboards. It looked like a large, flat, hoop of silvery-gold metal, with four triangles sticking out from it like a compass, or the rays of a sun.  _ Huh? _ Zoey kneeled down to get a better look at it. The edges looked bladed but dull. Using both of her hands, she yanked it out from under the planks, and it fell to the floor with a clatter. Slowly, she replaced the loose floorboards. She didn’t know why at the time, but the ring seemed to call to her. Zoey had a feeling it had something to do with Max’s escapades, though it probably wasn’t directly connected.  _ I’ll take it home and look over it _ .  _ Just in case. _

Picking the ring up with both of her hands (goddamn, was it heavy), she heaved it over her shoulder, running as fast as she could out of the dojo. There was a large section of the surrounding woods flattened from where Max had stepped there before, and Zoey made sure to follow the makeshift path, dragging the hoop through the dirt. As she sprinted through the brush, carrying the metal hoop behind her, Zoey smiled.

She’d somehow snuck through the grass, into the woods, and out of the dojo, all unnoticed. The mission was a success.

Little did she know, someone was watching her from the grass. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's this?? a new character??? hmmmmm


	4. Player Two?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New character, new perspective...:eyes:

The time was now half-past six, and Cale’s older brother, Stephen, was still missing.

He had left early in the afternoon with his dog, a tiny wiener dachshund with a thin scar slashed diagonally across its face, eerily similar to the ones he, Cale, their baby sister, Olive, and their mother had. Stephen had waltzed out the door cheerily, claiming he was off to see Max with the rest of the Jang, promising to return in an hour or two. Yet, even as the sky showed hints of a sunset to come and the clock ticked a quarter past three, Stephen was nowhere to be found. 

Cale had begun to grow anxious. By eavesdropping on the Jang’s conversations gathering information, he was ninety-nine percent sure Max was heading off to the Guerra’s house. Cale had gone there only once, tagging along with the rest of the Jang, but he had gotten just a little too curious and strayed off into some obscure part of the house. He had hurriedly been escorted out, and he’d never gone there since. He never remembered people’s addresses clearly, but he knew the house was somewhere in the woods. Maybe, if he headed there, he’d find Stephen. 

He’d learned from exploring the entire two hills and surrounding area of Mayview that there was a grass field that lead directly into the woods, just a couple of blocks away from Cale’s house. He had gone there intending to track down Stephen, but instead found footprints and tamped down areas where someone had just recently stepped in. Carefully following the trail into the woods, Cale had noticed a huge path in the forest where brush and trees had been recently pushed aside, clearing the area of most of the obstacles. Cale didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to follow it. 

When he did, he had come across a pleasant surprise: Isabel’s house. He vaguely recalled the lopsided structure and clusters of chimneys, but found areas where the long stalks of grass had been parted as if people had walked through the dense field. The door was left ajar, and Cale had snuck inside, intending to look for signs of Stephen. While he saw Max and Johnny sparring in the backyard and Isabel punching dummies in the living room, there was no Stephen anywhere. Dejected, Cale had decided to go home, but instead found something unexpected. And it wasn’t Stephen. 

There, in plain sight, had been a girl maybe 3 years older than Cale, with short auburn hair and freckles, dragging a large metal hoop behind her. She looked too young to be one of the dojo residents, but too old to be one of the Jang’s visiting siblings, and had a large black hoodie over her head similar to the ones Max wore, so Cale could only assume she was his sister. What was strange was how she had dragged the hoop away in a hurry, carrying it under her shoulder like it was a precious relic. Maybe she’d gone exploring and found it! Or, she had stolen it away from an ancient temple in the woods! Then, it hit Cale.

She was a ghost hunter.

Of course! The hoop was bladed, like a fantasy weapon! She’d covered most of her face with her hood like she wanted to keep her escapades secret! She’d run off hurriedly like she was chasing something! Maybe a ghost, perhaps??? It made perfect sense! Finally, his years of listening to conspiracy podcasts and following in Stephen’s footsteps had paid off!

Cale had hurried after her, excited to find a fellow paranormal enthusiast, and discovered something else surprising about her: she’d gone to the dojo several times before. The terrain around her had been tamped down and worn, creating a messy path into the forest where branches, brush, and dirt had been stepped on and cleared aside. She was still unsteady on her feet, running uphill through the woods, but she was running quickly, shielding her face from the little debris still on the path. Cale suspected the path might have been tamped down by her, as the grass behind her where the hoop had been dragging through was flattened and carved into a path. He hurriedly ran after her, glad the crashing sounds of the trees and brush covered up the noise of his footsteps.

When she had finally stopped running, Cale watched as she dragged the hoop behind her into the door of what appeared to be the corner store where Max lived. He had wanted to slip out of the trees and back to his own house, but had stepped on a dry twig, caught her attention, and ran back into the woods down the path he had taken to the dojo in a flurry.

Now, even as he sat at his family’s dinner table, looking at Stephen’s empty seat, he was running through ideas in his mind. There was a fleeting thought he had that the mysterious girl he saw might have something to do with Stephen’s disappearance, but he brushed it away as his mom came in with a walkie-talkie clutched in her hand, absolutely fuming. 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” She swept her arm out in a quick, angry motion, missing a photo frame by exactly ten millimeters. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU CAN’T FIND MY SON?”

The voice on the other end, peppy and male, paused for a second, the sound crackling as he spoke. “We’ve looked everywhere! The chief even told us to check the woods! And we did!” 

Cale’s mother made an expression that was a cross between a scowl and a snarl. “LOOK. HARDER.”

“Can’t. He says so.”

A pause from Mom Stevens. Even from his vantage point at the dinner table, Cale could see the dead glare in her eyes, infinitely more troubling than an angry face. “...Put him on the line.”

A new voice crackled through the walkie-talkie, this time deep and unusually calm. Hearing it made a shiver run down Cale’s spine, but only rage showed on Mom Stevens’s face as she listened. “Is this about your son, Mrs. Stevens?”

“My son. WHERE IS HE.”

“We’ve already searched for him in the surrounding area. We’ll inform your family when we find him.”

Cale’s mom punched the wall with a boom. “He’s my SON! HE’S BEEN MISSING FOR SEVERAL HOURS!” She stopped to breathe for a second. “Don’t you have a son, Mr. Jones? Surely you understand how it feels!”

The voice behind the speaker was cold and unsympathetic. “I do not let emotions cloud my work, Mrs. Stevens, but we will continue to look for your son when it becomes a higher priority. Good day.” 

The walkie-talkie crackled once, twice, and then was still.

Cale watched as his mom slowly walked towards the kitchen, setting her coat down on the couch and pouring herself some coffee. She looked back at him, a sad smile on her face. “I’m sorry Cale,” she said, voice raspy. “I didn’t notice you back there.”

“Any news on Stephen?” he asked, though he already knew the answer. 

She shook her head. “No, unfortunately.”

Cale felt his spirits sink.

“But!” his mom added, sliding a pile of something towards him. “We found his stuff.” She scowled a little bit at the thought. “There’s an app on his phone I would’ve used in the situation to find his location. Too bad we can’t track him down now. Maybe you can call his friends?”

Cale slowly dug through the dump of items, and a worn black jacket slipped through his hands, along with a cell phone, a plastic dog leash, two dowsing rods, and a handheld radio. He could probably call Stephen’s friends and see if they knew anything, but chances are they’d be just as clueless as him. He decided to take his chances, quickly turning the phone on.

It was dead.

He frowned. How was he supposed to find Stephen now? What would he do with a radio, some dowsing rods, a dog leash, and Stephen’s hoodie-

Suddenly, an idea hit him.

Cale looked towards the scarred wiener dog at his feet, who had come home alone before Stephen had been found missing, and then towards the hoodie and the leash. 

He beckoned the dog towards him, taking a step towards the door. “Cash Reward!” The dog barked enthusiastically in response. “Let’s go find Stephen-WOAH!”

Cale’s mom grabbed him tightly by the shirt. “Not today, Caleb.”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s half past your bedtime, for Pete's sake!” she replied. “Go to sleep!”

“But  _ mom _ ,” he joked, “I have MAGIC tricks to do! Cards to shuffle! Dogs to pull out of hats!”

She gave him a wry smile. “You can do those TOMORROW. After you’ve slept.”

Cale pouted. “Awwwww.”

\---

It was a fresh weekend morning. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and Cale Stevens’s brother was, as expected, still gone. 

He decided to go out for a stroll (which in Stevens standards, meant taking Cash Reward and Stephen’s hoodie and hunting for him across the neighborhood). 

“Come!” he cried, waving the clothing in front of Cash Reward. “TRACK THIS MAN DOWN!” The dog barked happily in response, jumping up to catch a whiff of the jacket before bending its nose to the ground, tup-tupping away. 

“Hey!” Cale giggled. “Don’t pull!”

The dog ignored him, running quickly down a hill towards the lake. Cale stumbled downhill, the dog leash in his left hand taut as it tugged him towards the zealous dog. Finally, his plan might just be working! With Cash Reward’s nose and his sick kid detective skills, he might be able to find his big brother! Cale was filled with new hope.

That hope was swiftly crushed when Cash Reward suddenly came to a halt in front of the lake. 

“What is it? What is it, boy?” Cale asked, inching ever so slowly towards the lake. He might have been a kid detective and ghost enthusiast, but Cale was desperately, horribly, afraid of water. 

The dog only sat patiently at the edge of the lake, looking at Cale with expectation in its dark eyes. It seemed to almost shake its head as it stared back into the water, sniffing the surface a few times before going back to a quiet sitting position at the lakeside.

Cale stared into the murky depths, confused. There was nothing in the water that would bring any answers to mind, and the more he looked, the more confused he got. Where was his brother? Or was he lost forever?

A shrill bark snapped him from his thoughts. Cale turned towards the sound and noticed Cash Reward looking towards a red-headed figure with a metal hoop strapped on her back. Hope filled Cale’s veins. It was the mysterious girl again!

He watched as she picked up a rock, studying it for just a few seconds, before hurling it into the lake, skipping it a few times. Digging around in the dirt for another one, she tossed it into the water with a ploop. Finally, after a few rocks were thrown, he decided to gather his courage and approach her.

“Huh,” he said. “Are you searching for ghosts too?”

She looked at him curiously, kneeling to his height. “What'd you mean?”

Cale grinned. “My older brother lives around here,” he replied proudly. “He says they’re tall, with no legs and a body of smoke.”

He noticed her expression of intrigue, so he continued. “If you have long hair, they’ll grab it, so I keep mine in a ponytail.” Cale brought two hands to his chin-length brown hair, which was indeed done in a fluffy ponytail at the back of his head. Two chunks of hair had been let loose in front of his ears, and they bobbed as his hands brushed them.

The girl gave him a friendly smile. “Mine’s long too. Though I don’t know what to do with it.”

He peered behind her to the metal hoop she carried. “That’s a cool star on your back. Do you hunt ghosts too?”

She paused for a second or two, before nodding. “Sure.”

“Us ghosthunters should stick together.” He extended a hand. “I’m Cale.”

She held hers out in response. “I’m Zoey.”

“It’s nice to find someone like me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cale's mom still can't understand why Stephen named his dog Cash Reward.


	5. Time-looping Snakes, and Whatnot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter's kinda crappy and short, but hnngh take it anyway  
> the chapters in italic are present time zoey, by the way (so the Zoey that got transported six years back in time) and the regular chapters are zoey in 3 years, (so the one that's currently figuring out what the heckaroni is up wt

_Dr. Zarei didn’t even blink when older Zoey showed up at the dojo’s doorstep, accompanied by a fidgety Ed and an exasperated Max. She simply sighed, pulled out a phone, and called for backup._

  
_Mr. Spender, on the other hand, took one look at Max and Zoey, both bearing matching exhausted expressions, and nearly had a heart attack._

_After Ed and Isabel had f ~~orced him into a chair~~ calmed him down, the Activity Club’s teacher finally took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration._  
_“Let me get this straight,” he said, glancing up at Zoey with the same look one might give to a hairy tarantula, “You are from the future. Six years into the future, to be precise. In that future, you are part of the next generation of Mayview spectrals.”_

  
_Zoey nodded. “Don’t forget bearer of a sword…”_

  
_“That contains an extremely powerful light spirit,” he finished. “And somehow, you managed to break it.” Mr. Spender studied the sword again. “It still looks alright, though.”_  
_“It’s still not good enough,” she muttered._

  
_“Which brings me to my next point,” he continued, rubbing his temples. “Somehow, a spirit with the ability to bend time has somehow sent you 6 years back into the past, or for us, the present. While I can’t imagine how wild the future might be, right now that’s the least of our worries.” He glanced over at Zoey again. “But seriously, I want to know,” he whispered. “Anything bad going on in your time?”_

  
_“There’s the iPhone X, for one,” she quipped._

  
_“Anyways,” Mr. Spender said, paying absolutely no attention to her. “Somehow, this spirit has the power to transport itself and other people, including you, through time. This gives it the ability to teleport, which you witnessed when you and the future Activity Club-”_

  
_“Adventure Club,” she mumbled. “The Adventure Club.”_

  
_“The Adventure Club. Okay. When you and the Adventure Club attacked it. You said it disappeared to somewhere-”_

  
_“I could hear it near the school.”_

  
_“Okay, so when it teleported, a spectral hit it?-”_

  
_“You, I think, judging by the yellow chains.”_

  
_“Okay, so my future self hit it, and it teleported back to you guys. It apparently shot a beam, and then what-?”_

  
_“I disappeared, and then when I came to, I was surrounded by these kids.” Zoey finished._

  
_Mr. Spender exhaled slowly. “So right now, you are currently stuck in the past, where your past self is currently EXISTING, not to mention she is Max’s SISTER, and as a result who you need to stay away from-”_

  
_“And is currently suspicious about what the heck is going on in your crazy-town banana pants club.”_

  
_“In addition to THAT MESS, you’re saying this spirit is incredibly unstable and can jump to ANY point in time at ANY time, and can send any of us to ANY point in time at ANY time, and you added it seems to be locked to two points in time right now: your six years in the future and our present time.”_

  
_“Correct.”_

  
_“And assuming you kill it, it will send everything to its proper time?”_

  
_Zoey nodded. “We did kill it once, but in its...wispy form, it looped to the point where it was still alive. But when we did kill it, it sent everything back to its proper point in time.”_

  
_“So in order to send you back to your proper point in time, we must catch it at the EXACT time, and kill it with a PERFECT SHOT, otherwise it will loop back to its anchor point where it was still alive.”_

  
_Another nod._

  
_“And if we don’t nail this exactly right, we won’t get a second chance, because only the spirit remembers how the fights all went, and it’ll learn more as it resets the timeline.”_  
_Zoey sighed. “Unfortunately. The only reason I remember is because I shielded myself as it relooped.”_

  
_“Sweet mercy,” Mr. Spender muttered. “This is all too much to take in.”_

  
_“What puzzles me,” Dr. Zarei said, walking into the room with a cup of tea, “Is how a spirit managed to recycle and manipulate time. A spirit that powerful would have been large enough for non-spectrals to see it. Yet, you mentioned that not only was it not a poltergeist, which is unusual giving the fact it has an EXTREMELY dangerous ability, but also that every non-spectral in the surrounding area was completely unaware of what was going on.”_

  
_She chuckled nervously. “Yeah...that’s the thing… the spirit...sort...of...maybe...had… a fairy transistor?”_

  
_“CRIMINY JICKET!” Mr. Spender screamed once, toppled out of the chair, and fainted._

  
_Zoey looked at his prone form. “Stil as dramatic as ever, I see.”_

  
_\---_

  
_Zoey stared up at the ceiling, tossing her heavy sword around in her hands like it was a rubber ball. “I guess Francisco won’t be happy with another addition to the dojo._

  
_“I mean, it’s not like you can stay over at your house from the past,” Isabel replied. “Besides, you don’t really do a good job of blending in with that sword thingy on your back.”_

  
_“That’s the issue! Your grandpa keeps acting weird around the ring! But it might be because I kinda stole it from his tool archives,” Zoey admitted. “But it’s not like he really cares about the tools until they fall out of his grasp.”_

  
_Isabel snickered. “I mean, it’s not like you’re wrong. But there’s still one thing I wanted to know.”_

  
_Zoey caught her sword by the blade. “Whad’ya need, Mini-bel?”_

  
_“What exactly is a fairy transistor? And why was Spender freaking out about it?”_

  
_Zoey slammed her sword down into the ground with a thud, slumping back into the chair. “I’m assuming since you’ve been part of the spectral world since you were a baby, you’ve heard of the Underworld? Like, not in a hell way, but like, the monster world way?” Isabel nodded. “Then I think you’ll know a little something about fairies right? And how they’re known for perfecting magic manipulation?”_

  
_“Sorta.”_

  
_“Well, a fairy transistor’s a talisman forged by fairies (obviously). It’s a device known for the recycling and control of magical energy. It’s also known for ‘amplifying spectral energy flow, increasing the power of one’s abilities.’ Like a transistor.”_

  
_“So...why is it making that spirit travel through time?”_

  
_Zoey shrugged. “Who do I look like? Dr. Zarei? All I know is that transistor plus icky spirit equals Zoey in the past and Spender fainted on the floor, and if we don’t bop it on the head exactly right, it’ll repeat the entire battle again, and then one of YOU guys will be somewhere in the future or the past, and we’ll have an even bigger problem.”_  
_“We’d need a powerful tool then. Something much more powerful than your super fancy sword.”_

  
_Zoey frowned. “It took me like, 6 years to forge that thing. I doubt we’d find something that’d rival that thing in power other than that freaky shadow spirit in S-”_

  
_They were both interrupted by a loud roar from above the dojo._

  
_A colossal wyvern burst through the roof, holding a large, flat object in its front claws. The thing pulsed softly, and Zoey could make out the shape of a laughing goblin face in the middle, spectral energy seeping through._

  
_“That’s it!” she shrieked. “The transistor!”_

  
_The spirit narrowed its seven eyes, clutching the transistor to its chest. It unfurled two wings from its back, then four, then seven more, and more until it was a long mass of flapping wings and eyes._

  
_“Great.” Zoey cursed. “It’s a grudge now.”_

  
_The spirit roared again, and wings unfolded to reveal a spiraling throat of teeth. A glowing ball of energy crackled in its throat, and the transistor shone with red light._  
_Isabel whipped out her umbrella, ready to flip away from the incoming beam, but try as she could, she couldn’t summon Flipflop’s abilities._

  
_A rope of spectral energy grabbed her by the shirt, flinging her across the room, and Isabel landed on a couch with an oof._

  
_Zoey unsheathed her sword, black waves of spectral energy and yellow flames flowing from the blade. “Go alert the rest of the dojo.”_

  
_She swung at the spirit with a cry, before it clawed at her and sent her reeling, and she clutched her side in pain. Isabel hesitated, taking a step towards the spirit._

  
_“DID I SAY HELP, GUERRA?” Zoey snapped. “GO GET EVERYONE ELSE!”_

  
_Isabel fled for the door._

  
_“AND ONE MORE THING,” Zoey panted, sword held to the spirit’s mouth. “WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GET MR. SPEN-”_

  
_Before Isabel could ask why, a wave of energy launched her backward, and she skidded to the floor. She fumbled for her umbrella and discovered that it was working again, just in the nick of time. She flipped herself into the backyard, coughing dust._

  
_Dr. Zarei jumped out of her seat in a flash. “What’s going on?”_

  
_“Time spirit,” Isabel wheezed. “Living room. Need backup.”_

  
_Mr. Spender’s face turned dark, and he pushed his sunglasses up his nose crisply. “I’m going there right now.”_

  
_“No!” she yelled. “I mean, Zoey said I wasn’t supposed to bring you. I think it’s because the spirit turned into a grudge and we can’t use our tools.”_

  
_Before, Mr. Spender seemed almost insulted that he wasn’t allowed to come, but now he nodded with understanding. “Alright,” he replied meekly. “I’ll just stay here, then.”_

  
_“I’ll go with you,” Dr. Zarei said. Ed scampered behind her, huffing and puffing as he twirled his paintbrush, followed by Isaac and Johnny, the two mediums both lobbing great balls of energy in each palm._

  
_They didn’t end up going anywhere, because right at that moment, the spirit burst through the back door, right in the middle of the crowd._

  
_A flurry of spec shots cascaded through the air in an arc, landing on the spirit with a crescendo of cracks and pops. With a quick sweep of its head, it beamed the spec shots away, before swiping its tail and sending a few people flying._

  
_Francisco Guerra growled in frustration, a burst of energy forming in his hands. With a flourish, he flung it at the spirit, aiming for a lethal blow, but a chain of black energy stopped the projectile._

  
_Zoey gave him a warning look. “Hit it, and the timeline will reset.”_

  
_He smashed her chain in half. “I don’t take orders from insolent children bearing ostentatiously enchanted tools! Leave the adults to this.”_

  
_She stared up at him with defiant, almost haughty eyes. “Well, I wouldn’t leave a dangerous, incredibly powerful spirit in the hands of a crotchety old fart well past his prime. Especially when they’re so feeble they can’t even use a tool without exhausting themselves.”_

  
_“Only a fool relies on spirits to do their dirty work!” Francisco roared. “Do not think just because you wield a half-broken sword means you can talk back to those above you, little girl!” With a swing of his hand, he flung Zoey aside, raising a sharp blade of red spectral energy to the spirit._

  
_Zoey struggled to pick herself off the ground, and she looked up at the raging spectral with sheer horror. “NO-”_

  
_Blade met spirit, and the beast screamed, spreading hundreds of wings in a terrifying ring. With a belligerent roar, it shot a beam of light from its mouth, missing Isabel, Dr. Zarei, Francisco, Ed...and hitting Max square in the chest._

  
_Max stared back at the creature with bulging eyes, hands still gripped onto his bat before a massive vortex opened beneath him. In a frenzy, several people tried to grab onto him, but he slipped through, falling into the abyssal portal._

  
_The spirit looked down at the empty space where Max was curiously, wings folding in and tail curled up placidly, before letting out a soft screech and disappearing into a vortex of its own._

  
_Suddenly, with a blinding flash, both portals snapped shut, sending Zoey reeling._

  
_Max was gone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can we just assume pnat takes place in 2011 so i can make the disasters of 2016 and 2017 exist in the sunstorm universe? no? okay.


	6. Deja Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> exposition. wheeeeeeeeee...

_Once, long before he had moved to Mayview, Max had read Alice in Wonderland. He had loved to hear stories, and his dad had loved to tell them, but this story had been told to him by his mom, back when she was still alive._

_Max had still remembered her voice: soft but powerful, with a slight rasp, as she began to read how poor Alice had stumbled down the rabbit hole._

_“Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next,” his mom had said, flipping the pages with a crisp crackle. “First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything : then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs.” She looked at Max with a spark in her brown eyes, “Cupboards and pictures! Imagine that!”_

_Now, as he fell through an endless abyss, he was reminded about Alice falling down the hole, before he remembered Alice doesn’t hurtle through an endless void of time and space with her life literally flashing before her eyes, falling sideways and holding on to her belongings for dear life._

_Max tried to squint through his eyelashes and found out that he was slowing down. He was still moving too fast to look behind him, of course, but now he was falling gently, like he was flying._

_He slowly came to a stop, floating in the void like an astronaut in space, tumbling slowly forward. Max felt his bat floating away from his grasp, and he rolled himself forward, catching the bat, before stopping in horror._

_The time snake, as big as a skyscraper, spread all of its wings around it in a wicked halo. It screamed, sending him flying, and Max barely had time to form a shaky shield before he was tossed around like a ping-pong ball, tumbling wildly through space. He watched in fear as the spirit opened its mouth, preparing the biggest blast of energy yet. Max winced, preparing to die-_

_And was hurled straight into a tuft of grass._

_“Gee, another one falls into its tricks. That’s unfortunate.”_

_Max peeled himself off the ground, spitting out dirt and blinking his eyes groggily. Once his vision cleared, he saw a short, ginger-haired boy staring back at him owlishly, pale blue eyes gleaming with a curious spark. He looked incredibly similar to a certain electric medium, and Max squinted in confusion, getting up shakily on his knees to get a closer look at the boy. Upon closer inspection, it was in fact, not Isaac, but a sleepy-eyed, younger version of him, with short, curly hair and tiny tufts of hair flipped up in front of his ears, a shark-tooth necklace, and a strange staff in his hands in the shape of a crescent moon, not quite glowing but instead repelling light, so that the area around it was darker._

_He poked Max timidly. “Who’re you?”_

_Max only brushed him off and raised his bat high in warning. “Who ARE you? Some weird mumbo-jumbo wizard?”_

_The boy pouted childishly, a habit of Isaac’s. “I’m NOT a wizard, thank you very much. I’m the only and one Grayson O’Connor!”_

_“Eeeeeyeah, never heard of you. Sorry.”_

_“You kinda look like that spectral I see sometimes. He’s got like a big metal bat like yours! Though I’m pretty sure he was eighteen .”_

_“I’m six years into the FUTURE?” Max cried._

_“Yeah,” Grayson mumbled._

_An ear-shatteringly loud, peppy voice rang through the air, and Max winced. “A BLAST from the PAST! Who else got on the bad side of Mr. Time Snake this time, Grayson?”_

_“A tiny version of Maxwell Puckett, probably,” Grayson replied, twirling his staff. “From six years in the past.”_

_A short, skinny girl popped out from behind a bush, both hands on her hips. “Six years in the PAST! Now dat’s a DOOZY!” She extended a hand towards Max. “I’m Joni, though you may know me as Johnny’s younger sister. Nice to meet ya!”_

_Johnny’s sister? Upon second glance, she did appear to share some traits with the fiery medium, including their proud stance, yellow eyes, and familiar spunky accent. Her orange-blond hair was cut short to her jaw, bangs curved to the left side of her head and tips dyed bright red. Like Johnny, Max noticed she had the tendency to replace “th” with “d” and smash words together while talking._

_“H’ohhh boy,” she muttered. “The dojo’s already teeming with kids even without dis small fry. What am I gonna tell the big Guerra? I’ve been trainin’ for months and I’m still the crappiest student there. Don’t think another person thrown across time is gonna help.”_

_“The big Guerra...Francisco?” Max found it strange that one of Johnny’s siblings KNEW about him in the first place, let alone train in the dojo. Heck, even Johnny himself barely knew the place._

_Joni let out a grackle squawk of a laugh. “He’s gone. Visitin’ some spectrals over in like, Alaska or somethin.”_

_“Oh,” was all he could say._

_She snorted. “Ah well, might as well suck it up and bring you there.” Joni rummaged through the grass, slinging a forest green jacket over her shoulders. “C’mon, Grayson, pick up the pace! Or am I gonna have to carry you over there?’ she teased._

_“I’m not slow!” he whined. “I’m just tired!”_

_“You’re always tired! Not to mention, you always fall asleep at the worst times! Do you know how horrible it is to be covered in ectoplasm? DO YOU? NO, ‘CAUSE YOU’RE ASLEEP DURING THE ENTIRE DAMN THING!”_

_The thought suddenly hit Max. “Wait!” he said, feeling a tad bit awkward next to the two squabbling kids. “If Francisco’s dead, who’s running the dojo?”_

_Joni gave him a knowing look. “You’ll see.”_

_“Come quickly,” Grayson added. “The time spirit may still be lurking.”_

_Max still didn’t trust the ominous boy, but he followed anyway. He didn’t want to be sticking around in case he got flung across time AGAIN._

_The haphazard, bumbling trio made their way across thick, tall grass that went up to their chests, oh so familiar to Max. As Joni hopped up to the dojo porch, a high-pitched creak rumbled through the building, and Max flinched at the sudden noise. It seemed the dojo walls had withered and crumbled immensely over a time period of six years._

_Grayson patted the dojo’s windows affectionately, as if stroking a cat or dog. “I like the creaks in the house. It makes it seem alive.”_

_Joni whirled to face Max, a smile on her face that was just a little too wide. “Some say a year ago, the house actually DID become alive. Like dat chicken feet cottage from Baba Yaga. They said the spirit possessin’ the house looked just like it! But of course, dat’s just a rumor. Or is it? Maybe someday someone will come and give the house an ‘ol smack and we’ll find out.” She snickered and kicked one of the floorboards with a boom._

_Max was beginning to think both Grayson and Joni were just a little bit off their rockers._

_Grayson knocked on the door with a crisp swing of his wrist, and the echoes of his hand hitting wood reverberated through the house._

_A cheery voice somewhere in the house shrieked, and footsteps could be heard from the inside. “HEY! THERE’S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR! I THINK IT’S JONI AND THE WITCHY ISAAC!”_

_Max could make out the faint sounds of someone hurrying down the stairs, followed by the rattling of wood against metal and something being plucked from a coat hanger._

_“I‘M COMIN’! GIVE ME A SECOND!”_

_The door to the dojo swung wide open, and the owner of the second voice brandished an all-too-familiar red and yellow umbrella at the three bewildered tweens. “Did you guys finish off that mushroom frog near the park-OH MY LORD.”_

_Isabel Guerra, apparent “big Guerra” of the dojo, stared down at Max with wide eyes, triangular hoop earrings swinging with her. She looked like she had been fighting recently, judging by her disheveled brown hair pulled into a high ponytail and bandages wrapped over her bare feet. Max noticed the fluffy white robe once belonging to Fransisco draped lazily over her shoulders, sleeves rolled up to her elbows. If Max was skeptical before about being transported six years into the future, those doubts were cleared from his mind as he looked up at Isabel, who couldn’t have been older than eighteen._

_“Oh sugar honey iced tea,” she muttered. “Why is it always the Puckett family being thrown around by time shenanigans?”_

_Joni gave her a toothy grin and pointed to her tangled, sand-covered hair and dirt-caked face, before holding up a small sledgehammer in pride. “We caught the mushroom spirit though!”_

_Isabel sighed. “Hand it to me. We’ll talk about this more when we’re inside.”_

_Joni carelessly thrust the tool into her hands, and pushed Max and Grayson inside while she looked left and right in an exaggerated fashion._

_As Max was shoved into the dojo, he noticed how starkly different it looked from the one he remembered. Everything was more...warm. It was all messier and older and worn by dust and time, of course, but it all looked warmer, even friendlier. Fabrics and curtains were draped from the ceiling in a colorful arc, and their hems tickled the top of Max’s head as he walked forward, the rooms illuminated by lanterns and fairy lights. The old walls and some of the floorboards had been painted with splatters and strokes of ink and paint, forming a hazy mural he could only assume was future Ed’s handiwork. The training room was still the same, but now plush couches and piles of pillows lined one end, fluffed perfectly for any weary students needing a break after long periods of practice. The straw dummies had been replaced by more solid targets made of foam and wood, connected to the floor by several nails and planks. He could hear the cracks of spec shots and laughter as people fought in the backyard, and Max realized how crowded the place was. A dim purple light pulsed from one of the upstairs rooms, and he guessed Ed was probably hiding there._

_“Welcome to my turf, Mini-Max,” Isabel said, extending an arm in greeting._

_His eyes bulged comically. “Holy mother of pearl.”_

_She laughed. “I get that a lot. But usually, it’s from disapproving Consortium members who think I’m not good enough to get the kids here under control.”_

_“Kids?” Last time he remembered, the dojo was just full of stuffy adults and people in suitsies._

_“Yeah,” Isabel quipped. “They left a while back. Guess you can’t really be teaching thirty year olds when you’re what? Half their age? It would be kind of awkward anyway.” She turned back to Max, giving him her trademark smile. “Most of ‘em are out in the back. Though, you might wanna keep your head down, since you’re from the past , and well-um-” She made a few quick swishing movements with her hands. “If someone from the future sees you, who is from the past , things might get, um, a little-”_

_An uncomfortably familiar voice cut through her explanation. “ISABEL! Burt hasn’t come back from patrol in five hours-” He stopped short, staring with wide eyes down at Max._

_“Um, hello, me,” Max said nervously._

_Future Max looked down at his younger self. “Hello, Max.”_

_\---_

_Joni reached awkwardly around Max. “Pass the salt?”_

_He passed the shaker slowly across the long dinner table, where he, Isabel, Ed, Future Max, and a few other spectrals sat._

_“So I guess Zoey got snared by the time...spirit?” Future Max asked._

_“Yeah, I guess,” Max replied through a mouthful of shepherd’s pie. “She and Francisco were arguing for a bit but he ended up damaging it and here I am.”_

_Future Max gave him an uneasy grin. “She never really liked him,” he said to no one in particular. “I think Isabel’s attitude rubbed off on her.”_

_As Grayson leaned across the table to put more asparagus on his plate, Max vaguely recalled something Zoey had said incredulously after she had first popped out of the portal. “Aren’t you supposed to be in college?”_

_“We just started spring break,” he replied. “Zoey ended up going missing two days ago, but we didn’t know about the time spirit until Cale told us about it.”_

_Cale, a boy maybe around Max’s age who Max recognized as Stephen’s little brother gave him a thumbs-up._

_Ed, who sat across from Cale, wiped paint stains off his face and hands, the large aviator goggles on his neck swinging to and fro. “Speaking of which,” he said, stabbing a mushroom with a fork, “If we did get the time thingy, where would we put the transistor? Or the tool ? I don’t think Dad Puckett’s going to take well to selling either of ‘em, and I sure as hell don’t want to be putting it in the archives.”_

_“He didn’t seem to mind finding out Zoey was a spectral with a Big Freaking Sword, or selling some of the tools we brought home. We can keep the spirit with us until Grandpa Guerra comes back from his absurdly long trip into Timbuktu or who knows where,” Future Max mumbled._

_“It’s Alaska, probably,” Joni chirped._

_“Huh?” Max (from the present) asked, feeling confused._

_“We’re saying if we defeat the spirit, it’s staying over at the corner store. Keep up.”_

_Ed nibbled on a mushroom thoughtfully. “What about the fairy transistor?”_

_“Oh! I know!” Grayson shot his hand up, waving it around like he was swatting at flies. “I could give the transistor to the witches. They owe me a favor anyway.”_

_Joni groaned obnoxiously. “ Shona? She and Lisa give me the willies.”_

_“They’re sisters,” Grayson harrumphed. “They’re not that scary. ”_

_“To you, maybe,” she retorted. “You’re just as weird as ‘em anyways.”_

_The two exchanged angry looks._

_“Lisa has a sister ?” Ed awkwardly piped up._

_“I feel like I’ve left a group chat open for hours and just came back to whatever bonkers conversation is going on right now,” Max muttered to no one in particular._

_Isabel stood up, motioning for the rowdy tweens before her to settle down. “Hey, hey! Before we focus on actually tracking down the time spirit, who’s dealing with Mini-Max? It’s not like we can let him stay over at his house where non-spectrals can see him.”_

_The entire dinner table was dead silent._

_Cale glanced over at a nervous Joni before grinning deviously. “Hey Ed,” he said._

_“Yeaaa?”_

_“Your shoes are untied.”_

_As soon as Ed bent down under the table to check, Cale quickly placed a finger on his nose. Joni followed suit, Grayson mimicking her, until, excluding Ed and Max, everyone at the table, even the dojo trainees, had done so._

_Ed raised his head to find a gaggle of rambunctious teens snickering at him. “Huh? What’s-” He saw the apologetic look on Isabel’s face and paled. “Oh.”_

_“Looks like we’re airing out the guest rooms, huh?” she said, putting an arm around his shoulder amidst the roaring laughter of everyone else at the table._

_Ed buried his face in his hands. “Looks like it.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no beta reader, i post this, grammar mistakes and all, like a man

**Author's Note:**

> just a random fic idea where its mayview six years in the future, and zoey stumbles upon a magical tool and basically gets sucked into the world of magic and spectrals  
> and also she gets sucked into a time vortex and gets sent six years into the past with her motley gang of friends that may (or may not) just happen to be the rowdy younger siblings of some familiar kids...


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